YOUR 2009 NBL ELITE MEN NATIONAL CHAMPION, MARIS STROMBERGS

Life is good for Free Agent’s Maris Strombergs. The 22-year-old Latvian scooped up three huge titles over the last 18 months and shows no signs of slowing down after Free Agent Team Manager and Masters’ champ, Dale Holmes took Maris under his wing to help cultivate his immense talents.

You just got back from spending some time at home in Latvia after the NBL Grands. What is the biggest difference for you between Latvia and the U.S.? Actually, I was just at home for six days before the SX [UCI Supercross] race in Frejus, France. It was great to see my family and friends again. The traffic in Latvia is not even close to as bad as it is here, and the  weather, of course, is so much better in California. It’s already really cold in Latvia, but here in Cali you still can go to the beach in November!

What do you miss the most about being home? When you are home, what do you miss the most about the U.S.? My friends and Latvian food are what I miss most about home. I miss the California weather. I love it here.

Walk us through a typical day for you. Are you an early riser? How do you spend you free time? I wake up usually around 8:30am. The first thing I do in the morning is turn on my laptop, and then about 9:00am is breakfast time. Usually at 10:30am I go to morning training, then lunch and take a nap. I use my laptop and then about 5:00 or 6:00 is my evening workout and I try to get to bed by about 11:00pm. In my free time, I play NBA 2K10 on Playstation 3 or sometimes hang out with some American girls, but most of the time my days are pretty boring!

What is one big thing you have learned while living with Dale? How has he helped you become a better racer? He has helped me a lot since I moved here to U.S., there is not just one thing I have learned from him. He taught me how things happen in the U.S. and helped me adapt much more quickly to the American lifestyle. He helped me a lot off the track to understand American rules, so I could concentrate more on training and racing. It would be  a lot harder for me if I had to find out everything by myself, so Dale has had a big impact on what I have achieved already in the U.S.

Not only do you have an almost perfect body for racing, but you seem to stay very calm under pressure. What do you consider your biggest strength in racing? What do you think has made you a champion? My work ethic. BMX is my life. I go to sleep with thoughts about BMX and wake up with thoughts about BMX. It is not about how strong you are in the gym or sprints, but how mentally strong you are. You can’t win a lot of races without being strong mentally. Everything starts in your head. I think my biggest strength on the track is my gate and first straight. Even when I’m in lane eight on a short first straight, you can’t count me out. Last year in a couple interviews they were asking me about my weakness and I said, ‘riding when I’m in  the pack’. I think I have improved this year in the pack. I feel more confident after a bad gate or some mistake on the first straight. I always try to fight until the finish line and never give up.

Besides having more money and living in the U.S., what are some big ways your life has changed since winning the gold medal? It hasn’t changed a lot from what it was before. The only thing different is that people recognize me a lot more on the streets in Latvia. Usually when I go home, there are TV and newspaper reporters at the airport. I have a lot more opportunities now, but at the end of the day I am the same guy as I was before the Olympics: a calm, quiet, down-to-earth guy who loves to ride a bike.

You have won the Olympics, UCI Worlds, and NBL title—three of the most prestigious accomplishments for a Pro BMX racer. How do you continue to stay motivated on a daily basis after so much success and what are your goals for the future? First of all, I want to say thanks to my coach, Ivo Lakucs. He is the big key to my success and he knows how to keep me motivated all the time. I still have a lot of goals I want to achieve in my BMX career. There is the ABA title, the UCI Supercross title, and also trying to pull off all three titles in one year. But at the end of the day, I just love riding my bike. I love to compete with the other guys. I really have fun doing what I’m doing and as long I have fun, there shouldn’t be any motivation problems.

Your teammate, Connor Fields, and Australian Sam Willoughby both made a big splash on the Supercross scene this year. Which up-and-coming riders do you see as your biggest competition leading up to the 2012 Olympics? Sam could probably be one of them, but you never know what things will look like after the next three years. It will be interesting to see how Connor Fields and some other young riders develop over the next couple of years. I expect Mike Day and Donny Robinson to be in the London Olympic Games mix again. I’m sure there will be some surprises and frustrations about the next Olympics just like last year.

Who does Maris most remind you of from your days of racing AA and why? Would he have won the NBL title during your heyday in the 90s? He  reminds me a lot of Christophe Leveque. Not just on the track, but off it also with the way he ticks. It’s always a good question  about the fastest era. I think in the 90s the talent was deep and there were a lot of fast guys, but today’s riding is on another level and getting better all the time. I really love watching today’s Elites. I have to give props to guys like Cristian, Randy, and Pohlkamp who have won in both eras and step it up everytime the class goes up another level.

Did having a World Champion living with you help you in your quest for this year’s Masters’ title? Not really. I really didn’t think about the Masters title. I just had fun this year and it was a little  bit of icing on the cake to win the title.

Have you ever beat Maris in practice? I will not even get on the gate with him! I did once when he first came here, and he destroyed me more than anyone had ever done before! I can see why even a lot of his competition is mentally beat when they line up next to him on the gate  before the cadence even starts!

What are your future plans? Will you defend the title? Never say never, but I think I’m done. I really want to put 100 percent into developing the Free Agent team and program. I have more desire and drive for the team than my personal goals in racing right now. I’m going to do a bit of local MTB stuff to keep in shape, but I really enjoy going to the races to support my guys and not doing Pro warm-up at 7:30am on Sunday mornings anymore!